Even though they consider themselves the mostest smarterest people on the planet, the primitives have little understanding in the realm of science. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025551278
Scientists Find 'Direct Link' Between Earthquakes and Fracking
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/25918-scientists-find-direct-link-between-earthquakes-and-fracking
team of scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have found evidence “directly linking†the uptick in Colorado and New Mexico earthquakes since 2001 to wastewater injection, a process widely used in the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and conventional drilling.
In a study to be published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America on Tuesday, the scientists presented “several lines of evidence suggest the earthquakes in the area are directly related to the disposal of wastewater†deep underground, according to a BSSA press release. Fracking and conventional natural gas companies routinely dispose of large amounts of wastewater underground after drilling. During fracking, the water is mixed with chemicals and sand, to “fracture†underground shale rock formations and make gas easier to extract.
The USGS research is just the latest in a string of studies that have suggested the disposed water is migrating along dormant fault lines, changing their state of stress, and causing them to fail.
For their research, the four California-based USGS scientists monitored the 2,200 square mile Raton Basin, which goes from southern Colorado into New Mexico. They pointed out that the Basin had been “seismically quiet†until 1999, when companies began “major fluid injection†deep into the ground. Earthquakes began in 2001 when Colorado wastewater injection rates were under 600,000 barrels per month, and and since then there have been 16 earthquakes that could be considered large (above a magnitude of 3.8, including two over a 5.0 magnitude), compared with only one — a 4.0 magnitude quake — in the 30 years prior.
Let's disregard that large earthquakes start far deeper than we are even capable of getting to via 'fracking' and assume that we can - there is still a fundamental problem with this notion that can be summed up in one picture;
(http://cdn3.fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/swallow-coconut.jpg)
The amount of pressure necessary to move tectonic plates with "wastewater" simply cannot be achieved. Also, The wastewater will take the path of least resistance once it is outside of the influence of the pump. Forcing itself between bedrock isn't that place.
Which would be contrary to the purpose of fracking.
At Halliburton we used water and a gel solution to carry a specifically engineered "sand" down hole. The sand is what did the work, creating a space between layers that permitted the product to come up-hole. The water and gel wasn't expected to stay down hole and the sand was to keep the formation stable and permeable.
Right - which goes back to the notion of wastewater being responsible for earthquakes, when the simple truth is the water will disperse on its own, affecting nothing.
The Talking Heads may have made reference to water flowing underground - but they never specified how deeply underground it flows.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wg1DNHbNU[/youtube]